Battersea Arts Centre

Battersea Arts Centre
Address	Lavender Hill
City	Wandsworth, London
Designation	Grade II* listed
Architect	EW Mountford
Owned by	BAC Trust
Capacity	500 Grand Hall 140 Lower Hall
Type	Producing house
Opened	1980
Previous names	1893 Vestry of St Mary 1900 Battersea Town Hall
Production	The Masque of the Red Death
www.bac.org.uk

The Battersea Arts Centre ("BAC") is a performance space near Clapham Junction in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth that specialises in music and theatre productions.

History

The theatre was founded in 1980 in a Grade II* listed building which originally opened in 1893 as Battersea Town Hall. The building was designed in 1891 by E. W. Mountford. The space was converted to a community arts centre in 1974. BAC currently receives grants towards the building's operating costs from Arts Council England and the London Borough of Wandsworth, among others.

In 1901 a large pipe organ was installed in the Grand Hall. This was an unusual instrument designed by Robert Hope-Jones, a pioneering organ builder who invented many aspects of the modern pipe organ. His ideas went on to form the basis of the Wurlitzer theatre organ in the 1920s and 30s. The BAC pipe organ has been unusable for years, but restoration work has begun.

David Jubb has been the BAC's artistic director since 2004. In 2008 he was joined by David Micklem, with whom he shares the Joint Artistic Directorship of BAC.

BAC operates a "scratch" methodology as part of its "ladder of development" for new work. Performances are shown at various stages of development to an outside audience, whose input and criticism guides the further evolution of the work.

Past productions

• Punchdrunk Theatre Company's promenade performance of "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe ran through most of the building from September 2007 to April 2008
• Richard Thomas's early work as Kombat Opera, including Tourette's Diva, leading to the development of Jerry Springer - The Opera, which premièred at BAC in 2002, before transferring to the Royal National Theatre
• Jackson's Way, the winner of the 2004 Perrier Award in Edinburgh. A one-man show which mocks the world of motivational speaking and embraces it through encouraging 'pointless actions'.

Companies and artists performing at BAC have included:

• Punchdrunk
• Neil Harbisson
• Mark Thomas
• Jeremy Hardy
• David Hoyle
• Ra-Ra Zoo
• Kneehigh Theatre
• Theatre de Complicite
• Will Adamsdale
• Stewart Lee
• The Plague (English punk rock band)
• Told By An Idiot

External links

• Battersea Arts Centre